1855. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



37 



SPIRIT OF THE AGRICULTURAL 



PRESS. 



ON BEAUTIFYING THE FARM. 



Never was truer thought uttered, than this of 

 the Ainei'ican Agriculturist, that "Me time has 

 fully come when our farms should cease to be re- 

 garded as mere manufactories of food and the raw 

 material of clothing.''' It is commenting on an 

 article in the November number of the Horticul- 

 turist up )n " Parks and Pleasure Grounds for the 

 Farmer," and says further, — " It is one of the 

 great wants of our times that these farms should 

 be turned into attractive Christian homes, where 

 men and women shall not only work, eat, sleep 

 and die, but where they slniU enjoy life, as social 

 and religious beings, and by loving and culti- 

 vating the good and the beautiful on earth, be 

 fitted for the paradise of God. A man should no 

 longer be considered a good citizen, who does not 

 plant trees enough, and give time and money 

 enough, to make his homestead so attractive that 

 it shall retain some of his children to fill his place 

 when he is gone. Multitudes of these old home- 

 steads in the north are forsaken, mainly because 

 there was nothing but the sternest utility about 

 them, in the whole circle of the year." 



Cannot those ingenious " statistical men," who 

 tell us what the effect of occupation is upon the 

 mind and duration of life, tell us, also, what the 

 effect is of the agreeable and beautiful upon the 

 temperament and longevity of the race ? It is a 

 common opinion that country life is largely con- 

 ducive to health and happiness, and consequently 

 to vigorous old age. But these cannot be im- 

 puted wholly to exercise in the open air, for 

 many other classes enjoy the same opportunities, 

 and fail to reach as many years as the farmer. 

 Is it not (\xir, then, to suppose that the constant 

 impression upon the mind of the wise and benefi 



sentiments will be established in the minds of 

 those mingling in such scenes, will grace and 

 dignify the fireside, the pulpit, the ))ar, or Senate 

 chamber in maturer life, and awake in others a 

 higher appreciation of the beautiful. 



There is a taste for the beautiful in every culti- 

 vated mind. The farmer shows it when he 

 turns out his noble pair of Devons, or his Jer- 

 sey heifers to the wondering gaze of his neigh- 

 bors ; or points out the graceful curves of his pol- 

 ished plowshare,or the exact lines of his recently- 

 turned furrows. His wife and daughters mani- 

 fest their taste of the beautiful in the neat lawn, 

 40 by 80 feet in front of the house, the groups of 

 maples and birches, the shrubs and flowers, and 

 the noble elm standing in the centre as the pre- 

 siding genius of the whole. A few flowers in the 

 window, a rose-bush under it, or the Ampelopsis 

 or Bignonia over the porch attract and gladden the 

 heart of the traveller, so that he goes on his way 

 with kindly thoughts of his own, and of that home 

 where he saw the evidences of a love for the beau- 

 tiful. Then, where there is land enough, why 

 not extend these ideas, and let them expand over 

 several acres and call them a park, where the 

 best sheep and cows and calves may graze, — 

 and which will afford equal profit with any other 

 acres on the farm, — where friends may visit, and 

 children stroll and store up unnumbered ideas of 

 the useful and the beautiful 1 



It may be urged that there is no call for the 

 farmer to plant forest trees and form parks, 

 either to please the eye or as a protection from 

 sun and wind. But the objection would be 

 without force in thousands of cases. A baleful 

 "spirit of utility," — a spirit without foresight or 

 judgment, has swept away the finest forests in the 

 land. The "Capotoline Hill" at Wasliington, 

 was covered with noble and majestic oaks when 

 Washington planned the city, and when the foun- 



cent provision in the changes of the seasons, in Jations of the Capitol were begun. But ruthless 

 their varied aspects, the ever-varying landscape, hands were laid upon them, and with blind fatu 



occasioned by heat and rain and frost, the won- 

 derful instincts of animals, of birds, and insects, 

 coming to the view of the farmer as they con- 

 stantly do, have a healing and saving influence 

 upon his mind 1 What orator ever forgot the 

 inspirations he found in nature's grand cathe- 

 dral, the forest, or the lessons in the stones or 

 running brooks that were familiar to his youth- 

 ful rambles ? Tlie mind becomes deeply imbued 

 by the scenes fiimiliar to it in early life. If those 

 scenes represent violence and vice, the home and 

 habits of bandits and freebooters, the crop of 

 ideas which follow will be quite likely to partake 

 of the character of those scenes. On the other 

 hand, if the home of the farmer is surrounded by 

 something of the tasteful and beautiful, in the 



ity, one after another, their towering heads were 

 levelled in the dust, and now it will require a 

 hundred years, together with a liberal portion of 

 the treasure of the nation, to remedy the evil. So 

 on most of our farms, the beautiful forest trees 

 were all cut where the buildings wore to be erect- 

 ed, and in their vicinity, leaving it open, bleak, 

 and exposed to the full play of the elements ; and 

 this is the situation of thousands of our New 

 England homesteads now. Is there not, then, 

 good reason to introduce about tliese homesteads, 

 something more of the useful and the beautiful 

 combined. 



THINNING FORESTS. 



This subject is the natural corollary of the one 

 just discussed. "A New Englander, near Clare- 



way of lawns, groups of trees, shrubbery, and j mont, N. II." has published in the Gcrmantown 

 occasional paths, borders and flowers, kindred' Telegraph an article on the subject of thinning 



